More particularly, the invention relates to an information device for a vehicle driver comprising at least one electronic central unit linked to a display screen and to geolocating means, and the electronic central unit simultaneously running an operating system and a plurality of applications including at least one geolocated application.
The document US-A-2008/215240 describes an example of a device of this type.
One of the aims of the present invention is to refine the devices of the abovementioned type, notably to enable several applications currently running to coexist on one and the same screen, while allowing independence between said applications.
To this end, the invention notably proposes an information device for a vehicle driver comprising at least one electronic central unit linked to a display screen and to geolocating means, and the electronic central unit simultaneously running an operating system and a plurality of applications, including at least one geolocated application,
characterized in that at least one first application of said plurality of applications is adapted to be displayed on the screen while defining at least one window adapted to present a display controlled by a second application of said plurality of applications, said first application allowing or not allowing the possibility of having this window displayed and controlling only the size and the position of this window, whereas the second application controls the content of said window.
By virtue of these arrangements, it is possible to show, in the display of the first application, information concerning the second application or a virtual button or any other graphical object having an action on the second application, and do so without the first application needing to know how the second application is operating.
In embodiments of the method according to the invention, it is, if necessary, possible also to make use of one and/or the other of the following arrangements:
said second application also controls the actual display of the window;
the display screen is a touch screen and said second application is adapted to also control an action following a touch actuation by a user, of a graphical object displayed in said window;
the graphical object displayed in said window is a shortcut and said second application is adapted to be displayed on at least a portion of the screen following a touch actuation of said shortcut by a user;
said window is adapted to display information communicated by the second application with a certain priority level, and the first application is adapted to allow the display of the window if said priority level is greater than a certain threshold priority level and to reject the display of the window if said priority level is below a certain threshold priority level;
the display screen is a touch screen and the device also includes means of calling the control panel adapted to have a control panel displayed on the screen comprising at least a menu of the applications and a display control area, the menu of the applications comprising graphical objects designating said applications and the display control area comprising placement areas, the operating system being designed for a user to be able to drag a graphical object representative of an application from the menu of the applications and place said graphical object in one of the placement areas, each of said placement areas corresponding to a predetermined display type;
the operating system is adapted to have the control panel displayed on the screen overlaid on data previously being displayed;
the operating system is designed to have displayed, in different screen portions, applications whose representative graphical objects are respectively placed in the placement areas of the display control area;
the operating system is designed to have an application whose representative graphical object is placed in one of the placement areas of the display control area displayed immediately, said application being displayed according to the display type corresponding to said placement area and the control panel initially remaining overlaid on said application;
the display control area includes at least first and second placement areas, the first and second areas respectively corresponding to displays of applications on two complementary screen portions;
the screen is rectangular and has a smaller dimension, the two complementary screen portions sharing the screen according to a line of separation parallel to the smaller dimension of said screen and the operating system is designed for a user to be able to drag the line of separation by touch laterally toward one of the two screen portions, until the current application is made to disappear from this screen portion and to show only the current application on the other screen portion;
the first and second placement areas respectively occupy the two complementary screen portions;
the display control area also includes a third placement area and the operating system is designed to display, in full screen mode, an application whose representative graphical object is placed in said third placement area;
said third placement area forms a boundary between the first and second placement areas.
Moreover, another subject of the invention is an information device for a vehicle driver comprising at least one electronic central unit linked to a touch display screen and to geolocating means, and the electronic central unit simultaneously running an operating system and a plurality of applications including at least one geolocated application, the device also including means for calling the control panel (voice command, physical button or virtual button) adapted to display a control panel on the screen,
characterized in that the control panel includes at least a menu of the applications and a display control area, the menu of the applications comprising graphical objects designating said applications and the display control area including placement areas, the operating system being designed for a user to be able to drag a graphical object representative of an application from the menu of the applications and place said graphical object in one of the placement areas, each of said placement areas corresponding to a predetermined display type.
The invention also relates to a method for controlling a device as defined hereinabove, in which:
an operating system and a plurality of applications including at least one geolocated application are made to run simultaneously on the central unit,
at least one first application of said plurality of applications is displayed on the screen of the personal navigation device, while defining at least one window adapted to present a display controlled by a second application, said first application allowing or not allowing the possibility of displaying this window and controlling only the size and the position of this window, whereas the second application controls the content of said window.
Another subject of the invention is:
a computer program comprising instructions for implementing the above method, when these instructions are run by a processor;
and a machine-readable data medium comprising such a computer program.